Sascha SeganFilip Wearable Smart Locator and Phone for KidsThe Filip locator-communicator smartwatch can let you put your elementary-school-age kid on a longer leash, but that freedom comes at a high price.

The Filip locator-communicator smartwatch can let you put your elementary-school-age kid on a longer leash, but that freedom comes at a high price.

The Filip safety smartwatch for kids is a great idea, but at $199.99 (direct) and $10 per month, it's too expensive. That's a pity; in our nervous society, a quick way to get in touch with your kid might help you put them on a longer leash, and that's something today's children desperately need.Let's start by setting ground rules. Locator devices like these are for kids who want to be located. That's why it's smart to target gadgets like this at the under-12 set. You're not going to find a locator product that will survive a rebellious teen. I tested the Filip with my seven-year-old daughter Nina, who is completely on board with Daddy knowing her location.Physical Design and SetupDesigned for 4-9 year olds, the gadget looks like a big, rubbery watch, fitting over a kid's wrist. The face is about 1.6 inches square by .6 inch deep, and it weighs 2.1 ounces. It'll only fit up to an 8- or 9-year-old, although a larger model is coming soon. It comes in blue, red, green, and pink. It's bulky enough to cause problems in clothing sleeves, and Nina said it got uncomfortable towards the end of the day. The star-shaped charging port on the bottom left a star-shaped mark on her wrist when she took the watch off, but that didn't hurt.

The watch comes with a USB charging cable but no AC adapter; out of the box, you have to charge it by plugging it into something with an existing USB port (like another device's charger). The company also sells an optional AC adapter ($20) on its website.

Build quality could be better. While the watch is solid and survived plenty of drops, the red ink around the emergency button bled slightly into the green rubber around it, and after only a week's worth of use there was some noticeable scuffing on the top edge of the watch. I tried to clean it with a little soap and water, but that didn't fix the problem. The watch is water-resistant, but not waterproof.

Nina was the talk of the second grade with her new watch, which shows the time in both words and numbers. The device has two buttons: Press the red one to change the time display style, and the small green one to cycle through the five numbers you can call. Hold down the red button for three seconds to put the phone into "emergency mode," which cycles through calling the five numbers in the phone and can't be stopped by the child. The Filip can't call 911.

The Filip won't work unless a parent has an iOS or Android smartphone. The parent downloads the Filip app onto the grownup's phone, which sets up the watch and lets them configure it. With a password, multiple parents can monitor the same watch, and you can have multiple watches in a family controlled by the same app.

From the smartphone app, you can program the five phone numbers the watch can send or receive calls to and from, send it 16-character text messages, and locate it on a map. While the watch has a standard phone number, people who aren't one of the five approved numbers can't contact it. The ring tone is a high-pitched trill, and can't be customized.The parents can also create "safe zones," geofenced areas where you'll receive a text message when the child enters or leave the region. The one missing function Nina wanted was the ability to reply to my text messages, which Filip's creators said is coming soon.Performance and UsabilityThe gadget came in handy several times during the week. I texted Nina to tell her that her mom would be a few minutes late picking her up one day. Another day, I lost her on the playground and called her to figure out where she was. With the Filip on the case, I was happy to let her roam and didn't feel like I needed to watch her every second.Call quality was not very good, but it was clear enough for short chats, and my calls always connected. The Filip only works in speakerphone mode, and Nina and I were able to have brief conversations on the playground without problems.The Filip's location detection wasn't as good as its calling abilities. While it combines GPS, cell-tower location, and Wi-Fi hotspot location to supposedly find locations indoors, it's hooked up to a somewhat inaccurate mapping database that kept giving me the wrong addresses for the right locations. For instance, our office is at 28 E 28 St, but the Filip kept insisting it was 36 E 29 St. Ultimately, I only ended up trusting the location function within a block or so.The locator also isn't live all the time. You can set the watch to update its location every fifteen minutes to an hour, and also to update on request—but it took a few minutes to respond to a request. I could get Nina's location much more easily just by calling her and asking her.

Voice calling ended up being the killer app here. Since she could only call me or her mom, there were no privacy or security issues. Since the phone was always on her wrist, she never needed to fumble for it. If I wanted to know what was up, I could ask her.

Battery life is almost exactly a day and a half. While the Filip won't conk out during the school day, it needs to be recharged every night.

Pricing and Service Plan The Filip costs $199.99, plus a mandatory $10/month AT&T service plan, for a total of $319.99 for the first year. There's no contract, but it doesn't work without the subscription. That's a lot for a gadget with such limited functionality, but it's in line with other similar solutions.

The $199.99 Garmin GTU-10 tracker will keep more constant tabs on your kid's location, but it doesn't have the voice capability which Nina and I loved. Ditto for the Loc8u Freedom watch.

The kids' mobile-phone service Kajeet can configure severely restricted phones. A basic plan with 60 voice minutes per month and unlimited location requests costs $21.99/month. Combine that with a $42 Kyocera Domino phone and you're still paying $305 for the year.

If your family is on Sprint, Sprint Family Locator with Sprint Mobile Controls cost only $5/month. The services are much more flexible, but require that the kid have an Android smartphone, which isn't too appropriate for the under-10 set. They're also pretty complicated to configure.

Especially if you have an accident-prone small child, I could see you going through one or two of these a year. That would add up. At least you can locate the device if you lose it.ConclusionsThe idea of an inexpensive way to get in touch with elementary-schoolers roaming the playground or getting picked up from after school is a great idea, especially in this era of working parents and complex child-care arrangements.We've been here before and the category didn't take off. In 2005, the Enfora TicTalk offered a similar kids' communication solution for $99 up front, plus $0.25 per minute. It was part of a spate of similar products including the LG Migo on Verizon and the Firefly on Cingular; none of them sold.Nina and I would love to carry the Filip around, especially during the summer when she roams the playgrounds and beaches of New York and Rhode Island. Last summer in a small town, I experimented with sending her down to the corner for bagels while watching her from my window. I'd love her to be able to call me if she forgets whether I want sesame or poppy-seed.But notice I said inexpensive above. At $320 for the first year and $120 for each successive year, this is a hard sale to make—especially given the inaccuracy of the location results and how easily scuffed-up the body is. It's a great idea, though, and I'm looking forward to version two.

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About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 13 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, hosts our One Cool Thing daily Web show, and writes opinions on tech and society.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. Other than ... See Full Bio

Filip Wearable Smart Locator an...

Filip Wearable Smart Locator and Phone for Kids

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